Tolls and taxes would help to pay for tunnel

Gregoire: 'Majority of people' back plan to replace viaduct

By LARRY LANGE, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Photo: Paul Joseph Brown/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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Gov. Chris Gregoire is flanked by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and King County Executive Ron Sims, and they are surrounded by city, county and state elected officials after signing a memorandum of understanding on the construction of a deep-bore tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct. The accord was announced Tuesday. less

Gov. Chris Gregoire is flanked by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and King County Executive Ron Sims, and they are surrounded by city, county and state elected officials after signing a memorandum of understanding ... more

Photo: Paul Joseph Brown/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Tolls and taxes would help to pay for tunnel

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A new package of tolls and taxes would pay for part of the $4.2 billion tunnel destined to replace Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct.

The pact to build a deep-bore tunnel under downtown Seattle stems from a yearlong study of solutions for replacing the central section of the viaduct. Officials said thousands of hours of technical analysis, public meetings, and letters and e-mails from the public, interest groups and local jurisdictions were considered.

Gregoire acknowledged that some will oppose a tunnel -- as some did, protesting outside the building where the new project was announced -- but she called the proposal something "a majority of people" do agree with.

"We must take the viaduct down before Mother Nature beats us to the punch," she said, referring to fears that the span, which carries more than 100,000 vehicles a day, could collapse during an earthquake.

The agreement confirms a state commitment to spending $2.8 billion for the project. But the state currently has $2.4 billion budgeted and may impose tolls on the tunnel to pay the difference once it opens in 2015.

State lawmakers, who still must sign off on the plan, said tunnel tolls would be discussed during the current session. One issue would be to make sure they're not so high that people divert to Interstate 5 through Seattle to avoid paying them.

In addition, King County has asked legislators for authority to levy a 1 percent vehicle license fee to help raise its $190 million share of the project that will come in the form of additional transit service to substitute for reduction in the number of lanes and help commuters during construction. The tunnel would have four lanes; the viaduct now has six.

King County Councilman Larry Phillips said the council would have to approve any new car-tab tax, if the Legislature authorizes the additional amount. He called the tunnel solution one "that will work and meet all of the competing needs."

The new plan calls for starting construction on the bored tunnel in 2011 and opening it to traffic in 2015. Added transit service will begin next year, and the Spokane Street and Mercer Street projects will be completed by 2012. Officials said they expect the project will create more than 10,000 jobs.

Gregoire could not say if the construction schedule would allow demolition of the viaduct by 2012, as she has promised.

Nickels said the city, to help pay its $930 million share, would propose a special taxing district to raise some of the cash from higher land values and property taxes that result from removing the viaduct. It's not clear how much would be raised. Clibborn said support for that idea is in question.

The city has agreed to foot the bill for repairing the central part of the nearby Elliott Bay sea wall, relocating utilities and rebuilding Alaskan Way into a combined street and pedestrian promenade. Its share also would include $135 million for a new First Avenue streetcar and other street improvements, and the agreement considers its widening of Spokane Street and two-way traffic plan for Mercer Street part of the contribution.

Earlier, sea-wall repairs were included in the state's cost, but "this is a time for compromise," Nickels said.

The three agencies also plan to ask for $88 million in federal funds for the Spokane Street Viaduct and Mercer Street projects, which are to help move traffic east and west in and out of the viaduct corridor. Infrastructure-investment money from President-elect Barack Obama's incoming administration is a possibility.

An additional $300 million is tentatively assumed to come from the Port of Seattle, though port commissioners have not approved this. The port has kept $200 million in its budget as a possible contribution to a viaduct replacement but has said it wants to consider whether a replacement maintains adequate traffic capacity to port docks, its new cruise ship terminal at Pier 91 and connections between Ballard and the Duwamish area.

Port of Seattle Commission President Bill Bryant said Tuesday that coming up with the roughly $300 million port contribution to construction of the tunnel would be "difficult" but said the "CEO and commission will carefully examine our financial position over the next couple of weeks, and we will discuss what our potential contribution would be" at a public meeting at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Jan. 27.

An uncertain quantity is House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, who opposed a previous tunnel replacement and is backing an elevated highway structure with space for offices, retail outlets and a park on top. Chopp issued a statement Tuesday that was noncommittal, saying the tunnel will "now be considered along with the many other budget requests to the Legislature." But he said he's concerned about the new tunnel's two-mile length, a "real possibility for cost overruns" and the additional local taxes needed to finance it.

"Seattle voters rejected a similar tunnel option by 70 percent -- is this option going to be more acceptable to the people?" Chopp asked.

Gregoire said the state, city and county would each pay cost overruns from their individual parts of the replacement work. She also said the new tunnel, to be built with boring machines beneath the surface, is different from a tunnel dug from above ground such as the one rejected in a 2007 city ballot.

The Downtown Seattle Association, which opposed a new elevated highway and helped push for the tunnel, said the decision means "the opportunity for a vibrant, world-class waterfront, free of an unsightly two-mile wall dividing it from the rest of downtown, is now within reach," board chairman Patrick Gordon said. But tunnel opponents weren't taking the news quietly. A half-dozen of them, carrying signs saying "No Big Dig" and "Yes Elevated, No Tunnel," picketed Tuesday outside the World Trade Center in Seattle, where the tunnel replacement was confirmed.

Also Tuesday, Elizabeth Campbell, of Magnolia, filed an initiative with the Seattle City Clerk's Office to block construction of the tunnel. Signers will have to submit at least 17,967 signatures within 180 days for the measure to be acted on by the City Council or submitted to a vote.